Kerry Cites Progress in Mideast Talks

TEL AVIV—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry concluded four days of intense negotiations with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday without a deal to resume face-to-face peace talks, but he cited steps forward.
“We have made real progress on this trip,” Mr. Kerry told reporters at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport before wrapping up his fifth visit to the region since taking office. “I believe that with a little more work, the start of final-status negotiations could be within reach.”
Mr. Kerry is leaving aides behind in the region to continue mediating a resumption of direct peace talks, which have been stalled since 2010 over disputes about construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
But Palestinian and Israeli leaders sounded a more cautious note Sunday. Palestinian veteran chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that Mr. Kerry’s meetings with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah had been “positive and profound,” but that “there had been no breakthrough so far that would allow for a renewal of negotiations.”
“There is still a gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions,” Mr. Erekat said.
A senior Israeli official said Palestinians continued to impose preconditions with which Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu is uncomfortable.
Mr. Abbas cut off direct talks with Israel in 2010 after Mr. Netanyahu refused to renew a partial 10-month moratorium on building in Jewish West Bank settlements. The Palestinian leader has held ever since that he won’t resume peace talks without a new building freeze.
But settler influence on Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party is growing steadily, leaving him little political room on the issue. On Sunday, one of the party’s most vocal settler leaders, Danny Danon, who opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and supports expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, appeared set to win a Likud Party primary vote to head the party’s powerful central committee, party officials said.
Without a halt to settlement construction, President Abbas is seeking other concessions from Israel before he agrees to resume negotiations, senior Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Mr. Abbas has asked that Israel release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners serving lengthy sentences there, according to an Israeli official. The official said that Mr. Netanyahu said he was willing to consider such a gesture only after talks resumed.
Mr. Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday that he was prepared to resume peace talks without delay and without preconditions. “We are not creating any barriers to renewed final-status negotiations between us and the Palestinians,” he said. But he added that “there are certain issues we will stand firm on—first and foremost, security.” Palestinian negotiators say that has translated in past negotiations into Mr. Netanyahu’s insistence on retaining large swaths of the West Bank for Israel.
This trip appeared to be Mr. Kerry’s most intense diplomatic push, which analysts on both sides interpreted to mean Mr. Kerry at least believes a breakthrough is near. He extended his stay twice and canceled a visit to the United Arab Emirates, as he shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Amman, Jordan.
Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Abbas three times. A meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and other senior Israeli officials ran six hours Saturday night, wrapping up close to 4 a.m. Sunday, a U.S. official said.
Meantime, there were reports Saturday that the two sides agreed to a four-way summit. And an aide to Mr. Abbas said he expected Mr. Kerry to announce a U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian summit in Amman.
But after a final meeting with President Abbas on Sunday morning, Mr. Kerry elected instead to make a short statement saying “We started out with very wide gaps and we have narrowed those considerably.”
The Mideast Peace Quartet—which includes Russia, the United Nations, the European Union and the U.S.—will launch an ambitious new economic development project in the West Bank and Gaza as soon as negotiations resume, according to Western diplomats in Jerusalem.
—Mohammed Najib contributed to this article.
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared July 1, 2013, on page A7 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Kerry Cites Progress On Middle East Talks.

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